Inhuman
by Octorok92
Summary: When Zachary Cricket arrives in a strange world where magic exists and ponies rule the planet, he's going to have to rely on new friends to help him adjust to a place called "Ponyville". However, when Twilight Sparkle's friendship studies reach their near-peak, rumors of a strange organization begin to emerge. At this point, Zachary's story seems off to the ponies of Ponyville.
1. Prologue

Okay, here we go. This may just seem like your generic Human in Equestria story, but... well, I did put that summary up there for a reason. Keep in mind that this takes place between Season 2 and 3, so Twilight is not an alicorn yet, nor has Equestria Girls happened. As far as I'm concerned, the world of Equestria Girls is different than Earth anyway, so...

* * *

Prologue: The Human of White Tail Woods

The village of Ponyville was quiet.

Nopony was out on the streets at this time of night.

Ponyville was a small town, in which everypony knew each other and practically everypony went to bed at around the same time. There were no festivals or parties going on tonight, so it made sense that no one would be out so late.

The streetlights and houselights were all off, so the only source of light the town had at the moment was Luna's moon, which loomed directly above the town and blanketed it in a very dim light.

The wind picked up slightly, rustling the sign to the Golden Oak Library. Even the tree's tenant and her assistant were asleep at this time, and Twilight Sparkle was well known for staying up late and over-studying.

The town remained still until a single light turned on in the top floor of Sugarcube Corner. The light never went, and within the room, a puffy-haired pink pony was sitting upright in her bed.

She was shaking all over.

"O-OOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHH! I-It's a-a-a-a d-d-doozy!" she said. Though her eyes were a little bloodshot and her mane a little unkempt, she gave off the impression of a pony with limitless energy, even if she did just wake up.

Pinkie Pie was rarely even woken up by her Pinkie Sense, and if it did go off while she was asleep, she most likely just slept through it. She had never experienced a "doozy" while slumbering before, and doozies tended to rattle her to the core.

What's more, her Pinkie Sense wasn't done acting up yet. As soon as her doozy finished, she flopped out of bed and hit the ground, her head and neck bobbing up and down as she scooted along the floor.

"Wait, a doozy and a head bob?! Is it a headzy... or maybe a doobob? I've never had a doozy or a head bob happen at the same time, much less a headzy or a doobab!" her bubbly voice said. It was slightly lower than normal, so as to not wake the other tenants of the house, the Cakes.

"Well, a doozy means something really, _really _big or super, _super_ scary is about to happen, but a headbob always means that's somepony new is in town!" she contemplated for a moment, before she gasped.

"OOOH, maybe it means that the most super-duper, amazing, specactular pony just arrived in town!" she said enthusiastically. It didn't seem to matter that it was the middle of the night to her.

"I need to go and find this super-duper, amazing new pony right now! I need to throw them a "Welcome to Ponyville" party right away, before they get away from me! I need to get my party cannon ready and give them a special welcome! But, wait, do they like cake or fudge? Fudge or cake? Cake and fudge? Whatever, maybe I'll just throw both of them into the cake cannon! I need to remember to leave the confetti out this time!" she laughed, whispering to herself once she trotted past the twins' room.

Two minutes later, and Pinkie was wheeling a small, decorative pink cannon out onto the street. She frowned and put her hoof on her chin in mock thought, as the wind rustled her mane.

"Hmm, there definitely isn't anypony out right now. Maybe this super-duper, spectacular, amazing pony is playing hide-and-seek?" she thought outloud, twirling her party cannon.

Before she could say anything else, her head began shaking once again, the spasms this time pointing her head in a specific direction. It was towards the west, the opposite of the Everfree Forest.

"Ooh, I think I can find the new pony if I go that way! I know where that it; it's White Tail Woods! Maybe the new pony is doing a little sight-seeing! But, I bet I can give them a sight to see..." she said, rubbing the party cannon proudly. Again, Pinkie didn't seem to notice that it was the middle of the night.

"Oh, but wait! I'll be leaving Ponyville if I go to White Tail Woods! Maybe I should bring somepony along with me for the walk! I wonder if Twilight is up right now?"

The library wasn't too far from Sugarcube Corner and where Pinkie was standing, but the hyperactive pony noticed that all the lights were off in the giant tree.

"Hmm, should I go wake her up right now? I know she's the smartest, most-hardworking, most sciency pony in all of Equestria, so she must've just gone to bed after a super study session. And if I wake her up right now, I know she'll be super-duper cranky! Even crankier than Cranky Doodle!" she slapped her hooves to her face in shock after that last statement.

"So no! No waking Twilight for me! I'll just have to go welcome this new pony by myself!" she declared, rolling her cannon down the street.

"This new pony sure is weird, coming into town when everypony is asleep. But I won't wait until daytime to welcome them! I have to do it NOWWWWW!" she thundered.

It took Pinkie approximately twenty minutes to wheel her party cannon to the edge of the White Tail Woods. Her Pinkie sense was telling her the direction all the way. The new pony must still be in there.

She huffed and puffed lightly, letting go of the party cannon and taking a quick break. However, at the exact moment she did so, her whole body shook with a terrific amount of force, so much that she almost fell on her flank.

She shook her head and hummed; another doozy.

This time, before she could move again or even speak, there came an enormous explosion of force from the very center of White Tail Woods, where the new pony was assumed to be.

* * *

_Boom!_

The explosion that reverberated from White Tail Woods was loud, much louder than any noises that had ever come out of the region. If a pony were to stop and think, a noise like the unusual explosion would be more likely to come out of the Everfree Forest. The Everfree Forest was filled with dangerous plants and animals, as well as bizarre phenomena. An explosion like this would be commonplace there.

White Tail Woods, on the other hand, was not a place where such a thing would commonly occur. This forest was about as tame as things could get; there were no apex predators that lived in White Tail Woods, nor were there any strange phenomena.

Birds flew out of trees as little four-legged mammals scurried out of their hiding places. The air was charged with energy, and it ran up the animal's spines and tingled on their skins. They were all spooked by the explosion, no doubt, and were not keen on sticking around to find out what had caused it.

Despite being incredibly loud, there didn't seem to be any permanent. Any of the surrounding objects were not charred or damaged, besides a few trees that looked ready to fall. It was like an explosion of force occurred, but there was no effect, so to speak.

However, there came a stir from one of the trees affected by the blast. It was about to topple over, but there was some heavy rustling coming from inside its branches.

"AUUUUUGHHHHHHHHHHH!" a young sounding, but clearly male voice screamed.

A tall, bipedal figure fell out of a tree in the exact center of where the explosion occurred as the large oak went down, hitting his head on a outlying branch and falling into some bushes near the roots of the tree.

The young man shook the dizziness out of his head as he emerged from the bushes, blinking blearily about. A large shadow loomed over him suddenly, and he cried out in alarm as he leaped from the bushes before the tree trunk collapsed onto the bush.

He skid onto a trail near the bush, almost scuffing his hands.

"Good job, Zach. You wind up in the middle of Jackfuckistan and the first thing you do is nearly get crushed."

The human climbed to his feet, brushing the dust on his trousers. He said those things, but in all honesty almost getting crushed by a tree was the least of his worries at this point.

There were three things on his mind more important than that right now.

One, he didn't know where the hell he was.

Two, he didn't have his cell phone or any other means of communication on him. Hell, he didn't have any bit of technology on him at, so he also couldn't tell the time or figure out where he was.

Third, HE HAD NO IDEA HOW HE GOT HERE!

Zachary Cricket was nineteen years old, and still in his first year of college. He transferred to a four-year university immediately after high school, and it was safe to say that he needed a long to adjust to life in college.

His classes and workload were fairly generous, and he was in class well into the night. He always ended his classes extremely exhausted, so when he got back to his dorm room his collapsed onto his bed without even taking a shower or changing his clothes.

He woke up to the sound of a big explosion, and when he opened his eyes he was in the middle of a tree that was clearly about to topple over. He was so surprised by the event that he shouted and lost his balance, plummeting to the ground.

And that was basically the whole story. Nothing glamorous or exciting. He went to sleep and woke up in the middle of a random forest, end of story.

"Still, freaky explosions and random teleportation aside, this isn't the worst place to end up..."

It was true. Him teleporting was the only conclusion his mind could come to at the time, no matter how far-fetched or illogical it was. If he was randomly teleported, he could've ended stranded in a desert or the middle of the ocean or something with no way to get back. For a forest, this didn't exactly seem like the definition of rugged wilderness either. There was a trail right next to the area he had "teleported" into.

He looked around, first to his right and then to his left, before looking down at the trail. It looked like an ordinary trail that hikers would take through the forest. At any case, if something like this was here, it probably meant that there were people around.

He got his bearings.

"March 4, 2013. When I got back to my dorm, it was around 9:15..."

He looked towards the sky. Based on the position of the moon, it seemed to be way past 9:15. At this point, it was probably past midnight or so. How long had he been out?

There was something off about the night sky though. There were too many stars and he couldn't see a single constellation that he normally could name. Not to mention the moon... the moon was large, much larger than normal, and it was full. He remembered last night... the moon was a crescent. The full moon shouldn't have come for a couple more weeks.

"What the hell..."

A cold gust of wind washed over him, and he shivered a little bit. It was getting quite chilly out, and he wasn't dressed for cold or even chilly weather. He needed to find his way out of the forest, and maybe towards a settlement, whether it was a town or a campground or something. He just needed to find people.

And fast...

* * *

Okay, we're done here.

It's a human-in-equestria, as you could clearly tell. It was probably generic to you, really generic. You don't have to tell me twice; I know. It was intentional. I have a plan for this, though, so I don't.

So, thanks for reading!


	2. A Regular Ponyville Evening

Okay, so here's the next chapter of Not Human. Hope you enjoy it.

* * *

Chapter 1: A Regular Ponyville Evening

"Twilight! Twilight!"

The lights turned on inside the Golden Oak Library, shining on a terribly groggy and cranky unicorn that had just been awoken by the shrill voice of her assistant.

"Spike! What?! What is it?" she asked irritably. Her horn glowed, lighting up the magic-powered lamp on her nightstand. Her assistant had already crawled out of his basket and was shaking her furiously.

"An explosion. An explosion!" the baby dragon shouted, waving his claws around in panic. He quickly wore himself out, collapsing on his back with a heavy thud on the ground.

The bedraggled Twilight Sparkle was already sitting up in her bed.

"I know. I'm up! How could I have possibly not been awoken by such a thing? It was so loud!" she exclaimed, as she climbed out of her bed. Underneath her ragged appearance, she wore a look of concern.

As she looked out the window, she noticed several dozen ponies had already made their way onto the streets. Some of them were unclothed, but others who preferred to sleep in nightwear were still dressed in their pajamas.

"Nothing like this has ever happened in Ponyville before. Random explosions in the middle of the night just don't make any logical sense, especially for an explosion of such a size... Spike, did you happen to hear where the explosion came from?" Twilight asked, after turning to her assistant.

The little dragon bounced on his claws like a jittery insect.

"Uh, I was asleep, but when I woke up and heard it, it seemed to be coming from that direction..." he said as he climbed onto the window beside Twilight and pointed towards the western gate of the village.

"Are you sure?"

"Well, it seemed to come from outside of Ponyville, but I definitely heard it in that direction."

Twilight peered out of the window again.

"Over in that direction is White Tail Woods. I'm surprised the explosion didn't occur in the Everfree Forest, but I'm even more surprised that it would happen in a quiet place such as White Tail Woods."

Twilight cantered away from the window, grabbing her saddlebag off of her dresser.

"Come on, Spike! We need to head out into street and see that everyone's alright!" she stated, levitating the baby dragon onto her back. Spike settled into position, while Twilight burst out of the library and onto the streets.

"_Twilight!"_

Twilight didn't hear her name getting called at first, but the voice called again when she reached the middle of the square. Other ponies were milling around; some of them seemed to be looking at her for direction or answers, seeing as she was an Element bearer after all.

"Twilight!"

She definitely heard her name being called that time, and so did Spike. She recognized its tomboyish quality and the fact that it seemed to be coming from somewhere above them, so she began looking around.

"Rainbow Dash?! Where are you?"

"Right here!" Dash's voice exclaimed. There was a gust of wind, and as Twilight looked overhead she saw the speedy pegasus zoom down towards the ground, touching down next to Twilight just seconds after she had spoken.

Twilight coughed wildly at the cloud of dust that Dash had unsettled, as the pegasus stretched and folded her wings, looking somewhat proud.

"Dash! What are you doing?!" Twilight asked, looking a little annoyed at the rainbow-maned pegasus.

"My guess is... probably showing off," Spike said blankly, as he climbed off Twilight's back.

"Hey, I was just asleep in my house when I heard this _huuuge_ explosion come from somewhere in White Tail Woods. I made my way here as fast as I possibly could, but it seems like everyone is alright here!"

Dash looked just as in the dark about this as everypony else.

"There's no fire coming from White Tail Woods! I don't see any smoke!" a stallion in pajamas exclaimed suddenly. Twilight and Rainbow looked over to where the stallion was pointing. He was correct; there were no signs of smoke or a fire from where the explosion seeming occurred.

"That's strange..." Twilight said to herself, "With an explosion like that, you would think that there would be a fire with so much vegetation around the site."

She trotted forward.

"Still, I'm getting a very weird feeling about all of this..."

Rainbow Dash looked at her oddly.

"You don't think there's something freaky going on, do you?" she asked. Twilight didn't respond to her. Rather, she remained pensive and continued to stare ahead towards White Tail Woods.

"I don't know..." she said, "But whatever it is, we need to make sure this doesn't happen again, and we need to make sure that nopony is in any immediate danger."

"So, what do we do?" Rainbow Dash asked, intent on following Twilight's instructions.

"Hmm..."

After a few seconds of deep thought, Twilight's horn lit up. She disappeared in a flash of purple energy, landing on top of a box in the center of the village, which she used to address the ponies of Ponyville who had gathered in the street.

"Attention, everypony! I'm sure you're all just as confused as I am with regards to the strange explosion that occurred in White Tail Woods not more than ten minutes ago! I think it would be best for all of you if you went back inside your homes and locked up for the night. Rainbow Dash and myself will take over the investigation of this strange phenomenon, so you can all rest assured!" Twilight exclaimed.

She had gathered several dozen ponies, and they were all looking at her. They were used to Twilight Sparkle taking over a kind of leadership role if the Mayor was not present (and she wasn't), but an "investigation" of sorts seemed a little strange for the mare. Nevertheless, they trusted her and agreed to the terms.

"But wait, I saw Pinkie Pie heading for those woods a little earlier. Does she know about this?" a red-maned pony, Roseluck, spoke up from within the crowd.

Twilight's eyes widened, and fear graced her visage.

"What? How long ago was this?!" she barked.

"I-I saw her about fifteen minutes ago as I was coming home from Lily's. She seemed to be wheeling something along with her, but I don't know what it was. All I do know is that it was right before the explosion occurred..." Rose explained.

Twilight looked even more afraid now.

"Okay, everybody get back into your houses immediately! I will take Rainbow Dash and pursue Pinkie Pie right away. Under no circumstances should you leave the house until morning now, okay!" She tried to make her voice sound as authoritative as possible.

"What are we gonna do, Twilight? If Pinkie Pie is out there..." Spike made his reservations known as he appeared next to the box that Twilight was standing on. Rainbow Dash also looked conflicted.

"I don't know, but we have to hope that she's okay. If what Rose said is true, she could've easily got caught up in the explosion. We need to get over there now and find her!" Twilight cried.

Rainbow Dash turned and prepared to zoom off.

"I'll go get the others!" she shouted, but she was halted by Twilight's magic. She struggled in mid-air for a few seconds, flailing her hooves above, before she looked at Twilight in annoyance.

"What?!"

"We don't have time for that! We need to head into the woods right now! Forget about waking up the others!" Twilight demanded of her friend, who looked like she wanted to protest.

However, Dash appeared to let it go, and folded her wings as she hit the ground.

"Alright! Let's go!" Spike said, jumping the gun a little bit. As he turned to take a step, an aura of purple magic grasped his tail and hoisted him into the air upside-down.

Twilight raised the baby dragon to eye level, fixing him with a disapproving glare.

"Oh no you don't, Spike! There's no way I'm going to let you tag along with us while we search for Pinkie Pie! It could be dangerous, and you've been up far too late as it is. I want you to head back to the library and lock the door, and don't answer it for anyone. Understand?"

Spike looked unimpressed, but as Twilight set him on the ground, he agreed anyway.

"Yeah, yeah, I got it..." he said in annoyance. As he ran back to the library as fast as his stubby little legs could carry him, Rainbow Dash once again looked to Twilight for instructions.

With Spike out of the way, Twilight was free to head to White Tail Woods.

"Alright, Rainbow, we don't have much time. Let's go, now!"

* * *

"Uhh..."

Zachary considered rubbing his eyes, just to make sure that he wasn't still asleep. To tell the truth, he didn't know if he was ever going to believe what he was seeing right in front of him.

"What the fuck..."

He was currently perched once again in some bushes next to the side of the trail.

"_God damn it. I hear something coming... or something being wheeled down the trail, and I lose it immediately! But, it seems I at least had a good reason to stay out of sight..."_

As he peered out of the bushes, he saw that the person walking along the trail wasn't actually a person at all. Rather, it was a vibrant pink... pony... thing that was wheeling a small sky-blue cannon alongside it.

Zachary didn't know why he was breathing heavily; it wasn't like he was afraid of this thing. Still, he was just struck dumb by how _odd_ the pony thing looked. He called it a pony, but it was barely comparable with ponies he had ever seen before. It was simply the most comparable.

For starters, besides the fact that the pony was a shocking pink color, there were a few other features that set it apart. It was smaller, much smaller. He wasn't exactly the tallest guy around, but he doubted that the pony's body would reach past his chest.

And its eyes... its eyes were HUGE, and its muzzle was small. Honestly, it was the pony's face where Zachary was most unnerved The eyes sparkled with curiosity and giddiness, and a wide grin was broken out on the ponies face. This pony could display such a range of emotions, ones that were impossible for a real-life horse to display. Zachary wasn't positive by any stretch, but the pony's face and emotions were so detailed that he could sort of recognize it as a female.

"_What the hell is this?"_

On her flank was a tattoo of sorts, three differently colored balloons all in a row. He had no idea what that was supposed to be; maybe it was a brand or something? Whatever the case, it didn't look branded into the pony's body the way it seamlessly merged with her fur.

He watched as the small horse began to twitch, a bigger grin coming onto her face. Zachary tensed in alarm; she seemed to be looking for something. He had heard a saying that horses could smell fear, did that mean she was looking for him? It didn't explain why she was so happy though.

The thought unnerved him more, given how disturbing it was to see a pony display such a human-like range of emotion.

"_I don't get it... This pony thing; I've never seen anything like her. I haven't even heard of such a thing existing on Earth. Maybe she just has a weird owner or something, and it just a normal pony? That doesn't explain the emotional capability, and I can't shake the feeling that this pony is intelligent... huh?"_

While Zachary was lost in thought, he didn't notice that the pony and her cannon had disappeared. A cold feeling settled into his gut.

"Hi!" a cheery voice right next to him chirped.

"YAAGHHHHH!" Zachary shouted in alarm, as the pink pony he had just seen had managed to find her way into the bush not a foot away from him and scared the living shit out of him.

Not to mention- HOLY CRAP TALKING PONY.

Zachary fell on his ass, clutching his heart as he began to breathe heavily.

The cannon fired, blasting Zachary's face with confetti.

"You must be the new pony! Oh wait, but you're not a pony, are you?! But is it okay if I call you the new pony, because even though you're not a pony I've only ever welcomed ponies and I'm gonna treat you like a pony so you're practically a pony!"

Zachary brushed a leaf of confetti off of his face, and continued to stare dumbly at the pony, who was beaming at him. Questions exploded into his brain like firecrackers, and he said about the only thing he could at the moment.

"Uh, w-who are you?"

"I'm Pinkie Pie, the party pony of Ponyville! My Pinkie Sense went off when I was a sleepy-weepy twinkie Pinkie, and I realized that there was a pony in Ponyville I hadn't welcomed yet! So I went to find you, but then some really scary explosion happened right as I was heading into the woods. It really scared me! And then I saw you're some super mysterious creatures I've never seen before that can talk, but that doesn't mean that super mysterious creatures will get left out of their welcome party!"

"_Ponyville? What the hell is Ponyville? Who the hell would name a town Ponyville? Unless..."_ Zachary's imaginative mind was starting to work out possible scenarios to what happened and where he could possibly be. All of a sudden, random teleportation, talking ponies, and a town called Ponyville seemed to give credence to the idea that a place like this didn't exist on Earth.

"Yeah, I just remembered I have to, uh... go somewhere..." he trailed off, creating a lame excuse to the pink pony. Sticking around here and the talking pony would probably just lead to trouble, and he needed to know if there were any people around, though the feeling in his gut told him that that wasn't the case.

As he turned to walk out of the bush, Pinkie was there, hanging upside down from a branch in a manner that seemed physically impossible. Zachary gaped.

"Don't you wanna at least see your party before you go?"

Damn. He wasn't going to weasel his way out of this one so easily.

"_What party? It's the middle of the night in some forest... how can there be a party?"_

"Uh, hey! Y'know what, sure! I'll accept your welcome party, but I wanted to ask you something. This Ponyville, what is it?" he asked, trying to turn things around. If he couldn't shake off Pinkie so easily, then he should at least get some information while having to deal with her.

Pinkie Pie looked at him weirdly.

"Don't you know? Ponyville is the most super, terrific town in all of Equestria. My gosh, it's like you've never been in Equestria before!" Pinkie exclaimed, rolling her eyes.

"_Equestria? Definitely not Earth..."_

"Uh, nope... I'm just from... out-of-town. I'm sorry I haven't heard of your little village. Tell me, are there any humans that live in Ponyville?" Zachary asked, hoping and praying that there would be people in this world.

"Humans? What are those?"

And with those words, Zachary's world came crashing around him.

* * *

So we're done here. More introductory crap; I promise this won't last forever. In fact, the chapters will probably be getting longer after this.

So, the character of Zachary is still probably very generic and vague, isn't he? There aren't a whole lot of details that you as the reader know about him, right? For example, he's been very vague about where he came from.


	3. Twilight Sparkle's Diplomacy

Hmm, okay. For the few of you who this story on this site alone, I'm sorry. I've been really neglecting this version of this, for whatever reason. I remembered I should really upload it here, but it's kinda been slipping my mind.

I've actually got seven chapters uploaded for this on FIMfiction. It'd probably be best to read it there, though I will continue to update it here as well. It's has the same title and everything, and my username over there is the same.

* * *

Chapter 2: Twilight Sparkle's Diplomacy

"_Humans? What are those?_

The odd pink pony in front of him said those four words in response to his question, and Zachary's mind went blank. Not what he was expecting, but considering he had already dropped into a world where small, technicolor ponies exist, he supposed it was possible.

"_Calm down... calm down. Maybe this pink pony just lives very, very far away from any human civilization. It's possible that they never come into contact with humans because they're so far away from them,_" he thought.

It was a possibility, but at this point he was probably just kidding himself.

Before Zachary had a _panic attack_ though, he needed to act fast. He felt a few lumps in his pocket; he hadn't brought his cell phone or any other technology with him, but he had at least something in his pocket.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a lighter, and grinned. Exactly what he needed. There were three other lumps in his pocket.

Zachary reached into his other pocket, pulling out what looked like a long, brown stick. Pinkie Pie was looking at it with abject curiosity, "oohing" in childlike wonder. When he waved it around and Pinkie glanced at the green leaflike material inside the hollowed out middle, she oohed even louder.

He laughed outloud when he noticed that she was getting all excited over a blunt. Maybe he liked this pony after all.

Zachary stuck the blunt between his lips, raising the lighter closer to his mouth and lighting the marijuana on the end of it. The blunt began to burn, and he waited for the sweet weed to work its magic.

He took the blunt from between his lips, and blew a fat cloud of smoke. Pinkie's grin wavered as the human stood there in silence.

As more time went on, the serious look on his face devolved into a relaxed smile.

"Man, no humans around here. That's cool, I guess..." he said in a lower voice. He suddenly decided he was tired of standing, and collapsed onto the forest floor and sat there.

He laughed.

"This welcome party of yours sounds real nice, Pinkie. Is there gonna be food there?" Zach asked the pink pony. He didn't seem really concerned about the fact that a pink pony was talking to him anymore.

Pinkie perked up at this.

"Yes! Of course! I mean, what kinda party doesn't have yummy food? There'll be dancing and games and yummy treats and cake and ice cream! Just like a party should have!"

"Man, Pinkie... bro. I could really use some food right now, so why don't ya just take me back to the Ponyville place and we'll chill at this party..." the high young man said.

Pinkie beamed. She didn't even really notice the change that had occurred in Zachary's attitude.

"Okey dokey lokey!"

* * *

"What in the hay _**is**_ that?"

Twilight's mouth went dry when she saw the creature in the woods, and the fact that her friend Pinkie Pie was standing right next to it, animatedly chatting with it, was secondary to her.

It seemed to resemble a monkey in some ways, but it was clear that it was very different than any monkey that she had seen or read about.

For starters, from what she could tell at this distance, it was almost completely hairless, save for a short, scruffy mane on its head and some light smatterings of fur along its forelegs and back-legs.

She couldn't really see anything from this distance in the dark, even with her horn lit up. The only other thing she could really see was the way it stood on two legs with absolutely no difficulty. It didn't even have a tail, so how it managed that was beyond her.

As she worked the appearance of the creature over, the gears turned on within Twilight's head, pitting her memory against what she saw. She recalled multiple books she had read on unique animals and mythological creatures, and she scanned her memory for something even remotely resembling what she was seeing.

She came up with nothing.

"Hey, get away from PInkie Pie... you... you... thing!" Rainbow Dash roared, darting ahead at full speed. Twilight's mouth went even drier as she was unprepared for it, but after a second or two she managed to find her voice.

"Rainbow Dash, stop!"

Too late.

The creature seemed to have a relaxed look on its face, but when it saw Rainbow Dash barreling towards it, a look of fear crossed its beady little eyes, and it held up its... appendages in alarm.

Twilight winced as there was a thud of impact as Rainbow Dash collided with the unprepared creature, sending it sprawling to the ground.

The purple unicorn shook her head free of thoughts, her heart pounding in her ears as she galloped as fast as she could up to her friends and the creature, hoping that nothing disastrous had occurred when Dash had attacked the creature.

"What are you doing? Stop it!" a male voice rang out. Rainbow Dash's disturbance had apparently bothered Pinkie Pie quite a bit, because the characteristic smile was no longer on the party pony's face as she waved her hooves around frantically.

"Dashie! What are you doing?! This is our super special guest "Welcome to Ponyville" pony. Even though he's not a pony, we still need to make him feel welcome like one!"

"Welcome nothing! That huge explosion coming from the forest was caused by you, wasn't it? What is something like you doing out here?!" Rainbow Dash said, wrestling with the creature on the ground.

Twilight arrived at the scene after a good sprint, panting slightly for breath. Her horn glowed magenta, and a similar colored force field enveloped around Dash's body.

Rainbow Dash herself didn't notice that she was getting caught by Twilight's magic, until the purple unicorn began to forcefully lift her off the creature.

"Hey! Twilight, what are you doing?!" she cried indignantly. Twilight released her magic, allowing Dash to flop back onto the ground.

"Man, what's wrong with you technicolor, talking ponies? I'm just tryin' to get along here and get some help, and Skittles over there attacks me out of the blue! What's with that, huh?" the creature spoke up, its voice a little bit dazed.

"S-Skittles!" Rainbow Dash piped up in anger, rising to her feet. "My name's not Skittles! It's Rainbow Dash, the fastest flyer in all of Equestria! You got some nerve talkin' to me like that."

"Rainbow Dash..." Twilight said dangerously, her eye twitching. Her mind was already working out that the creature was _talking_, but her prismatic friend wasn't helping matters much.

The gears began to turn within Twilight's head again. If this creature was talking, then it was obviously intelligent. She had never seen a creature like this, but as it was it seemed lost and confused in this forest. The fact that Rainbow Dash had just attacked it probably also didn't help matters. Nevertheless, there was also the matter of the explosion, and this unknown creature's origins.

Naturally, it was Twilight's role to take up the diplomatic mission.

She cleared her throat.

"Hello!" she said, trying to sound as polite and cheerful as she could possibly be. The creature looked up at her, abject curiosity in its eyes. It talked, and it didn't seem close to attacking her, so the purple unicorn figured she was safe talking to it.

"My name is Twilight Sparkle, representative of Princess Celestia of Equestria and librarian of the Golden Oak Library in Ponyville!"

It continued to stare.

"As a local scholar, I can safely say that I have never seen one such as yourself. Let it be known that as long as you are accommodating, you are always welcome in Ponyville. May I ask your name?" she asked politely.

The creature drew itself to its knee, and Twilight cringed as she noticed the odd angle in which it sat. It looked... painful. It sat on its rump with its back-legs crossed over, with its back tilted at an odd angle and its forelegs flopping around in mid-air. Then, it grinned at her.

"Zachary Cricket. But you can just call me Zach, purpley pony..." he chuckled. Twilight raised an eyebrow, and noted the slightly vacant look in his eyes.

Yes, _his_ eyes. The voice was distinctly male, but she had to admit she didn't know the vocal patterns for this particular species. Since he sounded male, she would refer to him as a male for the time being until she could collect more information.

"_A whole new species that I don't know about! This is going to be so exciting!_ She couldn't to find out more. If she were lucky, this was a wholly undiscovered species that lived deep within the woods of Equestria, and she would be the first to document it! Likewise, it could just be some extremely obscure species that was already written down. Less exciting, but she still got to learn something new at least.

"_Strange name, though..._" she couldn't help but think to herself.

"Okay then, Zach... Would you-" she was cut off by the rainbow-maned pegasus who had gotten right up close to his face, beginning to heckle him.

"Yeah, I got a couple questions for you too... _Zach_. What was something like _you_ doing out in the woods in the middle of the night?" she asked in an accusatory tone.

"Well, I-"

"And, what was the explosion that happened out here? Were you the one who did that? What _ARE_ you anyway?"

"Uh..."

"Not to mention- HEY!" she was cut off again as Twilight grasped Dash's tail in her mouth and began dragging her away from the creature.

"Eh heh heh, excuse us for a second..." Twilight said awkwardly, dragging Dash away until she assumed they were out of earshot.

When she assumed Zachary couldn't hear them anymore, Twilight hissed at her friend.

"What do you think you're doing?" she asked angrily. Rainbow Dash stared at her.

"Don't tell me you trust this thing?! Just look at it!" Dash whispered. Zachary had apparently turned his attention on something else.

"That's beside the point, Rainbow. Ponyville has an obligation to welcome all sentient creatures, regardless of their appearance or background. I'm just trying to be polite... and also..." she leaned over in a hushed whisper.

"I don't want to scare him off. I don't know where he came from, but this could be an entirely new species! Think of the scientific breakthroughs this could accomplish. Another sentient species discovered!"

"But, what about the explosion! You don't think that explosion happening and then this thing appearing was all just an act of luck, huh?" Dash replied.

Twilight sighed.

"No, I don't. But, we have no proof of anything, and even if it was true, it does not indicate that this creature is in any way dangerous. We have to wait until we get more information on the subject before we begin to point hooves..."

Dash looked desperate.

"Twilight, _please_. Don't invite this thing back into Ponyville with us. I'm way too awesome to admit this... but... but..." she trailed off.

"... I have a bad feeling about this thing. There's something about it that just seems... off to me. I don't know how to explain it. And take a look at it. I tackled it to the ground and must've hit it half a dozen times, but there's not a single scratch on it! Call it a hunch, but I think we should leave this thing out here."

Twilight wasn't amused.

"A hunch? That's it? Rainbow, you shouldn't fall for such silly superstitions. There's nothing to indicate that he should be left out here, regardless of how you feel on the subject... And..."

As the two argued, Twilight felt she had forgotten something. Something important. Pinkie had been uncharacteristically quiet during the whole ordeal.

There came another bang, and Twilight instantly felt a stone drop into her stomach. Pinkie Pie had found her party cannon again, and had fired off a shot of confetti right into Zachary's face.

"Pinkie Pie! What are you doing?!"

"Oh, you girls were getting so boring with all your questions and stuff! So, I decided that Zachy here didn't need to be bored while he's getting his Welcome to Ponyville party!" Pinkie exclaimed.

Twilight fumed.

"Pinkie Pie, we are _not_ having a Welcome to Ponyville party in the middle of the night!" Twilight ordered, to which Pinkie pouted.

"Awwwww, why not?"

"Well, I'd imagine that Zach's very confused as to what he's doing here, and a little disoriented from the earlier explosion. The best course of action would be to head back into Ponyville and get settled back down..."

"Aww, I don't mind, Sparky..." Zach blurt out. "In fact, I want that party now, cuz I heard that there's gonna be food and stuff, heheh..." he said dumbly.

Twilight's eye twitched, while Pinkie burst out laughing at Twilight's new nickname.

"_Sparky?!_" Twilight thought in offense, before she snorted.

"No, you two will not cause a ruckus in the middle of the night! And that's final!" she demanded bossily, to which the pink pony and displaced human whined.

Rainbow Dash giggled slightly, before she remembered she was supposed to be untrustworthy of the human.

"Hey, Twilight! I just realized something! Where's it gonna stay for the night. I'm definitely not gonna take him in, if that's what you're wondering. Don't tell me _you're_ gonna let him stay at the library tonight..."

Twilight flinched. She was excited when it came to learning about this new guest, but letting a potentially unknown creature stay in her house was a little much, especially with Spike there. Still, she couldn't just leave him out there lost, and with this chance...

"You know what, Dash, that's exactly what I'm going to do! Zach can stay with me tonight!" Twilight said proudly, to the surprise of Dash. She got a little smug pride out of accepting her friend's challenges.

Dash looked affronted.

"Fine, whatever! Just don't blame me when he ends up trying to eat you in your sleep!" she said indignantly, before taking off at full speed, ignoring Twilight's shouts.

"Dash, wait!" she called out, before she gave an exasperated sigh and turned back to the others.

"Alright... Pinkie!" she called the pink pony to attention.

"I'm really only doing this to settle you down, but we really can't hold a party for Zach right now. _But_, I promise that we'll have one the first chance we can! Okay, Pinkie?" she bargained.

Pinkie pondered it for a second.

"Hmm, okey dokey lokey!" she said cheerfully. Twilight and Zach took their eyes off her for just one second, and then she was gone.

"Hey, where'd Chicken Pot Pie go?" Zach asked.

Twilight sighed for what seemed like the millionth time.

"Don't ask. You'll get used to that crazy pony doing things like that. Now..." she trailed off. "let's get back to Ponyville now; we have a lot of things to talk about on the way."

* * *

The high from the weed had already completely wore off.

"_Ugh, what was I even doing with that? I really shouldn't be smoking weed at a time like this; it will make me even more out of touch with reality..._" Zachary thought to himself.

When the astronaut came crashing down to Earth, his mood went with it as well. He supposed he lit one up so he could relieve himself of the stress of the situation, but he had gotten too relaxed around that pink pony afterwards.

Thankfully, the weed had prevented him from freaking out over the fact that there were _no_ humans here, and the _talking ponies_ of all things had never even heard of them.

Now that the weed had worn off, he was finally able to think about these things, and actually be worried about his future. He looked over to the side; somehow he had found himself walking back to a town of miniature talking ponies with a purple unicorn by his side, stealing glances at him every once in a while.

During his high, he remembered this purple pony coming up and talking to him, something about being a representative of a Princess or something.

What confused him was the fact that she didn't freak out at the sight of him. If this was in his world, any talking creature other than a human would've not gone over well. But she talked to him like it was nothing, like the species differences didn't exist.

This purple pony, Twilight he remembered her name was, seemed to notice that the two of them kept stealing glances at each other. She smiled nervously, hoping to break the ice.

"So..." she seemed almost embarrassed to ask the question.

"I've never seen anything like you before! What are you?" she, and Zachary could see the glint of curiosity and wonder in her eyes. Didn't she mention she was a librarian?

"_A bookworm, no doubt. She's probably jumping over the chance to learn about some creature she's never seen before, I bet..._

He didn't vocalize these thoughts, and rather just snorted. Twilight winced.

"Oh, I'm sorry! That must've been pretty rude, actually!" she blurted out hastily, trying to apologize as best as she could. Zachary sighed.

"It's fine. I don't mind. To answer your question, I'm a human. Haven't you ever heard of us before?"

"No, I can't say I have... Is your species a secluded race from far up north or something?" Twilight said sheepishly, before she asked that question. It seemed to make the most sense to her at least.

He shook his head.

"I don't think so. I've never heard of anything like you ponies before. Where I come from, ponies don't talk or have horns and wings. They're just... ponies, I guess..."

Twilight's eyes widened, and she twitched. That wasn't possible...

"**WHAT?**" she screamed shrilly, making Zachary cringe.

"This place, too. I've never heard of any such country called "Equestria" or whatnot. I don't know where on Earth a place could support a country of talking ponies..."

"**WHAT?**" Twilight shouted again. This time she latched onto one particular tidbit of information in that sentence.

"Earth... what's Earth. Is that where you come from? I can safely say I've never heard of a place called Earth..." Twilight explained.

Zachary looked strikingly calm when he was told that information.

"I realized that I probably wasn't even on Earth anymore when that pink pony told me she had never even heard of humans before. We've dominated practically every square inch of that planet; there's no way..."

At this point, Twilight's head was close to exploding.

"Planet? You're not talking about the planet Equus, are you? There's definitely not one species alone that dominates the entire surface of it. With the Zebras, Dragons, and Griffins, how could there be?"

Now it was Zachary's turn to blow a head-gasket.

"_Dragons? Griffins? Okay, I'm **definitely** not on Earth anymore. It's like I dropped straight into some fairy tale book with all these mythological creatures around..._"

Twilight was done asking questions, for now at least. She broke out into a full gallop, calling out to him.

"Come on! We need to get back into Ponyville and into the library pronto! If you are what I think you are, then this could be the discovery of the century! I need to get back there and consult my material! Oooh, I have so many more questions to ask you!" she yelled frantically, urging the human to follow her.

Zachary looked at Twilight disappearing into the distance, breaking into a light run to follow her towards Ponyville. However, after a few seconds, he stopped.

His stance went rigid, his fists balling by his sides. He stood there for a few more seconds, staring into the distance with a vacant look in his eyes.


	4. An Interesting Breakfast

Chapter 3: An... Interesting Breakfast

While Twilight dabbled with humans, there was something much more concerning and mysterious going on within the capital city of Canterlot. The city was fairly quiet, or at least as quiet as the city could be, because most of its residents were now asleep.

That definitely wasn't true for a certain Princess.

Princess Luna was always awake at this time of night, as... she WAS the Princess of the Night after all. Night was her domain, and guarded it while her sister slept, for when she awoke, it would be time to raise the sun.

Luna's night court was always much, much smaller than Celestia's day court, but Luna made a habit of holding it every single night if possible, to make sure that her subjects were always attended to, even during the time they were supposed to be asleep.

Tonight, there were much more pressing matters to be attended to, however. So pressing that she had sent the guards to wake up her sister.

This was because earlier, when she was holding her night court, she had been interrupted. Her personal guards were usually draped away in the shadows, guarding quietly. They were much less flashy and far more subdued than Celestia's guards, and some ponies even thought they didn't exist.

It's easy to see why Luna would be so surprised when one of her guards barged into the throne room while night court was taking place.

Naturally, the somewhat temperamental princess did not take kindly to this approach.

"**What is the meaning of this?!**" she exclaimed, this time in the Royal Canterlot Voice. Those attending the court winced at the volume, but the guard was not perturbed.

"I bring important news, your highness! I have to immediately inform you that we have reported another disappearance. It is indeed another unicorn..."

"**WHAT?! Another one!?**" Luna exclaimed, stomping her hoof against the marble floor as her voice shook. Fuming, she began to calm herself, speaking in a much quieter, modern voice.

"That is the fifth disappearance this month. Are you sure this one is linked with all the others?" Luna asked. Ponies came and went after all; there could be an alternative explanation for this.

"Nay, your highness. It happened in Baltimare. They must be getting extremely confident, for it occurred where there were a number of witnesses to be found. The disappeared pony's name is Trixie, though, uh... she prefers to go by the Great and Powerful Trixie..." the guard explained.

"**I do not care about the title that she wishes to call herself! Tell me the details of the disappearance, now!**" she demanded, and this time the guard winced.

"Yes, your highness! There is absolutely nothing else to say but that it was the same as all the others. A unicorn going missing, with strange reports surfacing directly after. This time though, somepony managed to get a picture..." he leaned over, producing a small portrait from his armor, and showed it to Luna.

Her eyes widened, and her horn glowed as she looked upon the picture.

"**Awaken my sister, immediately!**"

* * *

Despite just crawling out of bed, Princess Celestia managed to make herself look regal in a quick span of time. That did not mean she was happy about being woken up, however.

She walked into the throne room, a little on the grumpy side, which was considerably rare for the calm, motherly Princess that always seemed to radiate a feeling of warmth and happiness.

"This had better be important, Luna..." she warned, and the close observer could see very slight bags underneath her eyes. Even the Princess of Equestria was subject to biology.

The Night Princess nodded.

"It is, Tia. There has been another one..." she said, in a subdued tone. As soon as Luna finished that sentence, all the sleep and crankiness seemed to disappear from Celestia's visage, and she was at alert.

"What? Are you positive, Luna? Where was it this time?" she asked.

"Baltimare. A unicorn mare named Trixie disappeared there not too long ago. That's not what makes this disappearance so important, though. One of the eyewitnesses managed to take a picture of the rumored "Hooded Gorilla"."

Celestia's eyes widened. This string of disappearances was definitely bizarre. Prior to Trixie, there had been four earlier disappearances in this month alone that all carried similar circumstances. They were all unicorns, they were all magically gifted unicorns, and they all disappeared without a trace.

During the second disappearance, things took a turn to become even stranger. Ponies who had been at the scene said they caught a glimpse of a strange beast that walked around on two legs. It wore clothes, and its face had been obscured by the hood it wore, they said, but the slightly humpbacked nature of the beast seemed to give off the appearance of a somewhat leaner gorilla.

Rumors were being thrown around as to what that thing was, if it even existed, but until now the crown had just regarded them as just that: rumors. The crown really didn't pay attention to the disappearances and were content to let the local authorities handle it. That is, until Celestia realized that only magically talented unicorns were disappearing. She had wanted to keep a personal eye on the investigation from that point on, in case there was something bigger at work here.

But now, this changed everything.

The picture glowed blue, and Luna levitated it over to Celestia, where the sun Princess scanned the picture. Trixie wasn't in it, but she did notice the hooded figure that seemed to be running away from through the outside of Baltimare, being pursued by stationed guards.

Celestia took in the figure. It matched the description almost perfectly. It stood about a head taller than regular-sized ponies, and walked on two legs. That's about all she could tell from the quality of the picture and the clothes it was wearing. The clothes were the real problem. It was dressed in a loose blood red robe from head to foot, its hood up and concealing its head. On the back of the robe was a strange symbol of a pentagram or magic circle covered in what appeared to be spines or thorns. All in all, it was an extremely baffling picture.

"Well, what do we do, sister?"

"I see. Well, unfortunately we cannot draw any conclusions from this alone. We do not know what it is, and we did not see Trixie within that image. However, we have gained some particularly valuable information with regards to these disappeances through this..."

Luna nodded, before her sister turned to her with a serious look in her eyes.

"At the very least, we know that there is something much bigger at stake here..."

* * *

"SPIIIIKKKE!" Twilight Sparkle shouted as she entered her home. She didn't even care about the fact that it was the middle of the night; she needed her assistant right there.

The baby dragon had taken the opportunity to go back to sleep with Twilight, but with her back and shouting at him, he woke with a start and tumbled out of his basket when he heard his name.

"HUH?! WHAT?! I didn't shut the window on Owloysius again! I promise!" he explained frantically, as he crawled to his feet and realized that he just woke up.

"Never mind that now, Spike! I need you to find every single book on fauna and mythological creatures you can! Get them to me immediately!" she demanded.

The confused dragon got even more confused when he halted on the steps and saw the strange two-legged creature walk right into through the door.

"Whoa, you live in a goddamn tree?" Zach asked, his eyes alight with wonder.

"Uh, Twilight. What is this?" he asked bluntly. Zach himself seemed confused and even perturbed at the sight of the baby dragon.

"Yeah, Twilight. What is this?" he asked, pointing to Spike. Spike and Zach stared at each other for a few awkward seconds, neither of them saying anything.

Twilight grunted; she was already flipping through a book at a near impossible speed, her brow knit into a picture of frustration.

"Zach, that's Spike, a baby dragon. Spike, that's Zach, a human. Now you know. More importantly, why aren't you getting those books, Spike?!"

Zach looked at her incredulously.

"Seriously? A dragon!? Well, you mentioned those before, but I didn't think you were actually serious?" he asked, but then he thought about it. He was in another world... _universe_ probably, populated by magical talking ponies and not a human in sight. The fact that there were dragons should be the least of his concerns.

"Hey! What's wrong with dragons? And sorry, but I don't think I've ever heard of humans before!" Spike asked irritated, his small claws on his hips. Zach just set a deadpan look on him.

"Uh, nothing really. It's just that well... dragons don't exist where I come from..."

"Oh..." said Spike. There was an awkward silence again.

Twilight decided to get in on the conversation, snapping the book closed as the boys spoke.

"You say that dragons don't exist where you come from, but you seem to be familiar with the concept of them. Care to explain?" she asked.

"Yeah. Dragons don't physically exist where I come from, but the idea of them does. They're mythological creatures basically, used in stories and fairy tales and the like. Kinda like... well, unicorns... actually," he finished lamely.

"I see..." Twilight regarded him with a narrow look.

"Oh yeah! Spike! Where are those books?!"

The poor assistant dragon was running all over the place, looking for books on animals and mythological creatures to give to Twilight. He was handing her them one by one, and soon enough there was a stack of at least a dozen books on the desk where she was studying.

"What exactly are you looking for, anyway? We sorta rushed here kinda quickly..."

"I'm looking to see if there's any information on your kind, whether it be in these animal books or books on mythology." she explained, flipping through pages.

"That's it? I don't see the point of that, really. No one here so far has ever heard of a human, and believe me... if we're around, you'd _definitely_ be hearing from us. The only conclusion that I can come to is that I'm not even from this planet..."

Spike backed away quickly.

"What? You're an alien!? For real!?" he asked, a twinge of fear in his voice. Zach looked at him bluntly, while Twilight closed her book.

"We can't be sure of that, though. That's why I'm looking. Besides, I think it's a little far-fetched that you came here from another planet..."

"At this point, I'm not even sure it's just another planet..." Zach said somberly.

"What do you mean?"

"I'm starting to think that I'm really in another universe, or dimension if you will."

Twilight looked at him incredulously, before she scoffed.

"That's ludicrous. Even if other universes existed, at this point that's nothing more than a hypothesis. Not to mention, there's no real way to travel between universes anyway." she said, levitating a book. She was ready to ask another question, but Zach seemed to be staring intently at the book floating in mid-air.

"How the fuck are ya doing that?" he asked in amazement. He was fairly observant, so he noticed the stream of energy around her horn, and the same color around the book.

Twilight looked confused.

"Huh? What do you mean? I'm just using my magic..." she said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Well, for Zachary, it clearly wasn't.

"Magic?! You can't _JUST_ be using magic! That's a pretty big deal here!" he said, his mouth practically hitting the floor as he saw it.

"I still don't see how it's such a big deal. Magic is something that exists in everything; you shouldn't be that shocked when you see it..." she explained.

"Oh, that's right. I'm in a world of talking ponies, for God's sake. I shouldn't really be surprised by anything I see here. Besides, I probably already saw it when I was high on weed or something..." he said, forcing himself to calm down.

Twilight was still confused.

"I probably shouldn't even mention the fact that magic doesn't even exist in my world..." he commented with a quick, cracking laugh.

"**WHAT?!**" Twilight screamed, for what must've been the one-hundredth time that night. Once again, it looked like she was about to have an aneurism.

"But... how... why do... how do... **WHAT?!**" she managed to stammer. Both Spike and Zachary looked at each other, and a brief moment of understanding flashed between the two.

Twilight's whole body was twitching now, and her face had scrunched up into a permanent grimace of confusion and over-thinking. Spike actually had to walk up to her and adjust her face back to normal. When he did, the only thing she had to say was...

"HOW?!"

"It just doesn't exist. That's probably the best way to explain it. Keep in mind that you saying magic does exist has got me just as confused as you." Zach explained.

Twilight shook her head, allowing herself to calm down.

"That shouldn't be possible. _Everything_ needs magic to live, no exceptions, and for a creature to just show up and say there's no magic where he lives is just... it can't be true!" It looked like her entire life was being turned around at the thought of it.

"Does this mean you finally believe me when I say I'm from another universe?" he asked, grinning at her like he had just won. Twilight scowled at him.

"You just keep throwing that idea around without really knowing anything. And maybe _you_ think there's no magic where you come from, but that doesn't make it true..."

Zach frowned at her.

"Do you even know how I got here?"

Twilight shook her head.

"Well, I got home from to my dorm after I had finished my classes at college... that's a school, by the way. And I was so tired so I basically collapsed on my bed and fell asleep as soon as I hit the pillow. The next thing I knew, I was waking up to an explosion and I found myself in some bushes in the forest you found me in I'm guessing the explosion had something to do with me arriving here, but I can't say for sure," he commented.

"Well, that certainly is strange, but still... that's pretty circumstantial if you ask me. There's no good enough evidence in that story to be able to conclude that you're from another _universe_..." Twilight said skeptically.

"Well, that's my story so I'm sticking to it. I'm from another universe and that is that..." he said bluntly.

Twilight huffed at his stubbornness.

"Fine! Be that way, then. But see what happens when I find an article about humans in that book. Then you'll find out you're just a far-flung civilization that just hasn't had any contact with ponies..."

"Twilight... you're not going to find anything in that book. How many times do I have to tell you that? But, if you're really insistent on that, don't you have someone you can ask about this kind of stuff? The sooner we figure that out, the easier it'll be for the both of us," Zachary said.

Twilight actually stopped reading her book and looked at him, pondering the course of action.

"Hmm, that might not be a bad idea, actually. I can always talk to my teacher, Princess Celestia, about this. Is there's anyone who would've ever heard of humans, it's her..."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Hold up a second! You mean that you're _teacher_ is a _princess_ of all things. Doesn't that mean you're like... a bigshot or something?" Zachary asked, his eyes wide.

Twilight smirked at him, her eyes alight with pride.

"Yes, she took me under her wing when I was just a little filly. She said she's never seen anypony with such a magical talent. I've been happily studying underneath her ever since," she beamed with pride.

Zachary's eyes softened. It seemed that this purple pony was really close to her teacher. The way she talked about her made it seem like she regarded her almost like a mother. It was unlike teacher-student relationships on Earth.

"Ha! I've done things your feeble human mind couldn't even comprehend! But I'll make sure to tell you about those later. I'm not one to brag about them after all!" she huffed.

"_Yeah, right..._"

"Uh, yeah, Twilight. I'll make sure to ask about them later..." he added.

"Well, your feeble human mind actually had a good idea. Spike, take a letter!" she ordered her assistant. The baby dragon had been watching the two of them argue in silence, waiting for a chance to butt into the conversation or sneak away back to bed entirely. The opportunity hadn't presented itself yet.

"_Dear Princess Celestia,_

_Today, something very interesting happened. I'm afraid I don't have a friendship report this time, but there is something I would like seek your guidance. You see, tonight there was a large explosion coming from White Tail Woods, but more importantly I made a very interesting discovery. A creature I have never encountered before. He calls himself a human, and as you might have guessed, he has the ability to talk. I've never seen anything remotely resembling him before, except maybe a monkey. He is almost completely hairless, walks and two legs, and is much taller than a normal pony. The strange thing is that he's claiming he's from another universe, or dimension if you will, but both of us have no idea how he got here! He also seems to lack a common level of knowledge on basic subjects such as magic and ponies themselves! I have no idea how to handle this situation, and I would be incredibly enthused if you would happen to know what a "human" is or how I might handle this situation._

_Your Faithful Student,_

_Twilight Sparkle_."

"And... done!" Spike called out, as Twilight recited the letter to him.

"Pretty flattering words you have of me there..." Zach commented. Twilight blushed.

"Hey, I'm just telling it like it is!"

"What's a "friendship report"?" he deadpanned. Normally purple cheeks got even redder at that.

"Uh, I'll tell you later. Spike, send it!"

The baby dragon blew a stream of green fire over the parchment, watching it crumble into incinerated fragments. Zachary looked at it in amazement.

"What was that?"

Twilight grinned at him.

"Magic..." she said in a condescending tone.

"You're right, though. The only to do now is wait for Princess Celestia's response, but she shouldn't be awake right now. I really do need to slow down..." she yawned. "I have so many things to ask you, but they can wait until the morning..."

"_No kidding. If I told her about the type of technology we have, she may never shut up..._" Zach thought. He made a mental note to never go into detail about that.

"Well, if you're getting ready for bed, I'll just be going then..." Zach said hastily, and a little overly polite. Twilight stared at him quizzically.

"Where are you even going to go? You don't have anywhere, do you? You just dropped right into the middle of White Tail Woods, as far as you're concerned..." Twilight noticed. Zach halted in his tracks, his hand on the doorknob.

"Uh, we barely know each other. It wouldn't feel right to stay with you..."

"Nonsense. You may be a new species, but so far you've been nothing but civilized the entire time, even if you are a bit annoying. I'm the one that found you, and I don't shut the door on any sapient creature who might be in need. _Not to mention, I still have so many more questions to ask..._"

Spike's eyes widened.

"Wait, wait, wait! He's gonna be staying here?! B-But... but he's an alien! Who knows what'll happen if we let him stay under our own roof! He might zap us with some kind of weird beam or whatever!"

Twilight looked at him, unamused.

"Spike, he's probably not even an alien. And we can't just throw him on the street like that. There's no reason to believe that he's any danger..." she turned to Zach. "You can stay here, until you get back on your hooves- I mean... whatever... those are..." she said awkwardly, looking at his shoe-covered feet.

Zachary smiled at her.

"Well, it's hard for me to turn down such a generous offer..." he remarked. Spike just stared at both Twilight and Zachary in terror.

Twilight smiled cutely at him.

"I'll pull out the extra mattress for you and you can make your own bed from that. Follow me upstairs and I'll show you..." she said, as the human quickly shut the door, walking past a wary dragon and up the stairs.

Twilight didn't seem to care about Spike's reservations, but there was one thing that was bugging her though. If she were in Zach's situation, she'd probably be very eager to find her way home. But not once that night had he mentioned or asked about a way to get back to his home.

She couldn't help but wonder why...

* * *

The morning sun peek through the window and hit Zach's face. He had taken to sleeping on a mattress on the floor that night, a few feet away from Spike's basket. Of course, he took up a lot more space than the little dragon, but man could that kid _snore_.

Nonetheless, he had gotten a good sleep last night anyway, so he was already in a good mood. He cracked an eye open; neither Twilight nor Spike were there.

Yet as he woke up, he realized that it wasn't all a dream. He was half-expecting to just wake up in his own bed back at his dorm, yet he was still sleeping on a mattress on the second floor of a library in a town of talking ponies.

Meh, it didn't hurt his mood that badly.

There was something wafting through the air right now, and it made his mouth water. He had had a long night yesterday, and he hadn't had anything to eat since he got here.

Luckily, they spoke his language, if the smell of breakfast from downstairs was anything to go by.

He got out of bed and stretched, his mind fixated on only one thing: food.

He smiled and began his way downstairs, his weight making a light creak as he descended out of the bedroom. As he neared the kitchen, his hunger was forcing his mind into overdrive.

The smell was getting more pungent too, and it was definitely coming from the kitchen. As he entered into the room, he saw both occupants already up and getting ready for the day.

Twilight was perched at the breakfast table, while Spike was at the stove, dressed in an apron and chef's hat, toiling away on what appeared to be some type of dish.

"Good morning, Zach!" Twilight said, her nose already in a book. Spike grunted something from the stove, clearly not trusting Zach all that much yet.

"Yeah, mornin'" he yawned. The smell was still overpowering him. He noticed that breakfast had already been made; Spike had apparently been hard at work, because there was a big plate of pancakes stacked at the table, and a couple of them were already on Twilight's plate.

It smelled _so_ good.

"Spike already made breakfast. Hope you like pancakes, Zach, because there's plenty... of... them... to... go... around..." she trailed off.

Zach didn't pay attention to her, and he walked right by the plate of pancakes and the breakfast table, confusing Twilight. There was a strange look on his face...

The human was still sniffing out the source of the good smell. He walked past the breakfast table, nonchalantly walking up to the large wastebasket next to Spike.

With a deep breath, he opened his mouth and shoved his head straight into the plastic liner of half-eaten food and disposable goods, and began to eat...


End file.
